i bought a 96 isuzu trooper 4x4 about three years ago and i love it. the problem is that the lifters have started to knock ( is what it sounds like ). what should i do? it has 220,000 miles
Make certain that it is lifter knock,and accept that I won’t get better on its own.
This is a common complaint for the Isuzu 3.2L V6 engine.
I had “some” success with the following. Before each oil change I added a quart of ATF to the oil. I found this suggested on several web sites. Then I drove a hundred or so miles before I changed the oil. The ATF has very good detergent properties, so it really cleaned out the engine. Supposedly that cleans out the oil path to the lifters also, so they either pump up quicker, or, don’t lose preasure when the engine is shut off. ANYWAY, I found that definitely quieted the lifters, but did not eliminate the chatter, and it returned when the new oil became older.
AND 220,000 miles is pretty high mileage, so this may not help your case. I looked into used, re-built, and remanufactured engines, but finally concluded that I should just drive it until I could afford another vehicle. You are probably not going to hurt anything that would not get replaced if you rebuilt the engine.
I also tried synthetic oil, which helped a little, but got costly because I was changing oil every 3,000 miles.
thank you.
I’ve been reading an Isuzu forum lately and it does seem like the ticking is a very common, but mostly benign, problem on these engines. This engine may well keep right on ticking past 300k.
Another somewhat more drastic trick along the lines of what 1981.911.SC suggested is to add a can of an additive called seafoam to the oil, go on a 20 mile or so drive and then change the oil. Seafoam is one of the few “miracle additives” that seems to actually work consistently.